Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (born October 13, 1948, died August 16, 1997), was a Sunni Pakistani musician, primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis (a mystical tradition within Islam). He featured in Time magazine's 2006 list of 'Asian Heroes'.  Traditionally, Qawwali has been a family business. Nusrat's family has an unbroken tradition of performing qawwali for the last 600 years. Among other honorary titles bestowed upon him, Nusrat was called Shahenshah-e-Qawwali, meaning The Emperor of Qawwali.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was born in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), Pakistan on October 13, 1948 to Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, a distinguished musicologist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and Qawwal. Nusrat had four sisters and one brother, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan. They grew up on Regal Road, central Faisalabad, in a small flat that was rented from a local successful business man Naseer Ud-din Mian.

Initially, Nusrat's father did not want him to follow him into the family business. He had his heart set on Nusrat choosing a more respectable career path by becoming a doctor or an engineer, because he felt Qawwals had low social status. However, Nusrat showed such an aptitude for and interest in Qawwali that his father finally relented and started to train him in the art. At first, he was taught to play tabla, playing alongside his father. He then learnt Raag Vidya and bolbandish. Once he had mastered such arts, he was taught to sing within the classical framework of khayal by the Qawwal Bachchon Gharana and learnt dhrupad from the Dagar family. This training was left incomplete when Ustad Fateh Ali Khan died in 1964, while Nusrat was still in school. However, the training was continued by Nusrat's paternal uncle, Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan.

His first performance was at a traditional graveside ceremony for his father (chehlum), forty days after his father's death. After the death of Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan, Nusrat became the official leader in 1971, and the party was called Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan & Party. Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan was Mubarak Ali Khan's son. Though considerably older than Nusrat, the leadership of the party still went to Nusrat.  Nusrat's first public performance as leader of the Qawwali party was in March of 1965 at a studio recording broadcast as part of an annual music festival, Jashn-e-Baharan, organized by Radio Pakistan. Nusrat took several years in which to perfect his craft and emerge from the shadow of other groups that were regarded as the leading contemporary Qawwals. Once he did, however, there was no looking back. He firmly established himself as the leading Qawwal of the 20th century. His incredible voice and complete mastery of the genre made him a superstar in the Indian subcontinent and the Islamic world. He sang mainly in Urdu and Punjabi, but also in Persian, Brajbhasha and Hindi. His Qawwali output is almost evenly divided between Urdu and Punjabi, with a smattering of songs in the other languages. Nusrat was also one of the first South Asian vocalists to perform before Western audiences.

In Pakistan, his first major hit was the song Haq Ali Ali. This was performed in a traditional style and with traditional instrumentation, and featured only sparse use of Nusrat's innovative sargam improvisations. Nevertheless, it became a major hit as many listeners were attracted to the timbre and other qualities of Nusrat's voice.  


He reached out to Western audiences with a couple of fusion records produced by Canadian guitarist Michael Brook. In 1995, he collaborated with Eddie Vedder on the soundtrack to Dead Man Walking. His contribution to that and several other soundtracks and albums (including The Last Temptation of Christ and Natural Born Killers), as well as his friendship with Peter Gabriel, helped to increase his popularity in Europe and the United States. Nusrat mentioned that his music was illegitimately used in Natural Born Killers. He has said that he did not approve of his music being used in the movie Natural Born Killers and that by using his music in this movie, the image of sufi music could be tarnished; simply, the movie runs contrary to the beliefs conveyed in Nusrat's music.  Peter Gabriel's Real World label released five albums of Nusrat's traditional Qawwali. Real World also released albums of his experimental work, including Mustt Mustt (which features a slap bass technique) and Star Rise. He also performed traditional Qawwali before international audiences at several WOMAD world music festivals.  Nusrat provided vocals for The Prayer Cycle put together by Jonathan Elias, but died before the vocals could be completed. Alanis Morissette was brought in to sing with his unfinished vocals.  Apparently, when Nusrat toured in foreign countries, he would watch television commercials in order to identify the melodies and chord progressions popular in that country. He would then try to choose similar sounding songs from his repertoire for his performances.

Nusrat contributed songs to, and performed in, several Pakistani films. Shortly before his death, he recorded a song each for two Bollywood movies, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya (in which he also appeared) and Kachche Dhaage. He also sang the immensely-popular title song of the film, Dhadkan.  According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan holds the world record for the largest recorded output by a Qawwali artist—a total of 125 albums.  Nusrat was taken ill with kidney and liver failure on August 11, 1997 in London, England while on the way to Los Angeles in order to receive a kidney transplant. Nusrat died of a sudden cardiac arrest at Cromwell Hospital, London, on Saturday, August 16, 1997, aged 48, at the height of his career. His body was returned to Faisalabad, Pakistan and his funeral was attended by thousands of people.